The Karen Women’s Organization (KWO) and Karen civil society groups helping Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) said they do not want Thailand to cooperate with the military council in setting up the humanitarian safety zone on the Thai-Myanmar border to deliver aid.
Thailand’s cooperation with the military junta in providing aid to the people will mean recognizing the junta, and Thailand is urged not to cooperate with the junta that is carrying out targeted attacks on the people, said Naw Eh Ta Mwee Paw of the KWO.
“The military is attacking the people with bombings. They are attacking with heavy weapons. We can see these incidents every day. That’s why we don’t want Thailand to cooperate with the military council in its efforts to help the people. Both KWO and the Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN) have been helping the displaced people in the area designated for the humanitarian safety zone until today. We can’t help the entire displaced Karen population of more than 700,000 people because we don’t have enough funding. If they really want us to help, we want them to help us more,” she said.
This is the Karen organizations’ response to the Thai Foreign Minister’s announcement on 6 February that a humanitarian safe zone would be established near the Thai-Myanmar border towns of Mae Sot and Myawaddy in late February and that aid for the displaced would be provided by the Thai and Myanmar Red Cross societies, reported by foreign news outlets VNA and The Diplomat.
The KWO also pointed out that Karen organizations, including the Karen people, need to unite to speak out against the Thailand’s decision.
More than 20,000 people who have been displaced by the fighting are to be provided with food and medical supplies in the humanitarian safe zone. In addition to China and India, talks were also held with international partners, the news outlets reported on the Foreign Minister’s statement.
Saw Khe Lay, deputy head of the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP), said Thailand’s decision to work with the junta is misguided and urged the Myanmar’s neighbor not to go ahead with this decision merely for the sake of a superficial political image and without proper considerations.
“We don’t understand how they are going to cooperate with the military council in border areas where fierce fighting is going on. It is difficult to understand why they want to address these problems caused by the military council itself. And only the long-displaced people from Lay Kay Kaw and those living on the upper bank of the Salween River will have access to their help. They make up only about 7 percent of the total displaced population. Can they even deal with them well?” said Saw Khe Lay.
Analysts believe the Thai foreign minister’s move is aimed at bringing about talks between the junta, the opposition National Unity Government (NUG) and the Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations (EROs) and complementing ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus, according to international media.
According to the Karen National Union (KNU), more than 752,000 people have been displaced by armed conflict in Karen State in the past three years since the coup. Civil society organizations assisting the IDPs are still unable to provide necessary assistance to even to half of the IDPs, and the number of IDPs is increasing day by day due to the junta’s attacks targeting civilians.
Sent by KIC.